Nestle India to contest fine in Maggi noodles case

NEW DELHI: Nestlé India will appeal against an order issued in a 2015 case imposing a Rs 20-lakh fine on the company for the presence of monosodium glutamate in its instant noodle product Maggi.
“We are in the process of filing an appeal,” a company spokesperson said. SK Mishra, the additional district magistrate of Morena, Madhya Pradesh, imposed the fine on Nestlé after a state laboratory found MSG in a sample of Maggi collected in 2015. The court found the packaging of Maggi wrongly claimed “No added MSG.”

“Maggi Noodles are 100% safe for consumption and Nestlé India does not add MSG as an ingredient to it at any stage of the manufacturing process,” spokesperson said.

India’s food regulator had banned Maggi in 2015 after tests showed it contained excessive lead and for alleged mislabelling over flavour enhancer MSG. The product returned to stores after a court lifted the restriction. Nestlé has since then removed the claim “No added MSG.”